Some Players that don't fit the Rebuild

Now that the roster is complete (read full) my attention is leaning back toward the off-season questions around some of the players who don't necessarily fit the rebuild mentality. By that I mean either a cheap young guy with potential for growth or old grisly veteran comfortable with getting paid to ride the pine. Here are my obvious top 3:

Barbosa - Too good and in his prime at 29 y/o to be backing up Derozan on club expecting 15-20 wins. Also he's an expiring contract that could be an excellent rental for a playoff team looking to plug a hole at either guard position or for a 6th man. Could see BC waiting until the deadline since his value is likely to increase moderately for teams looking to make a push. His contract is a slight issue, but I could see BC taking back players with 2 years left (since we likely won't be ready to contend next summer).

Calderon - Also too good and in his prime at 30 y/o to be with this rebuild. Kind of in the grey zone of too good to be amnestied and not good enough to be a major piece in a large deal. Might be stuck with him for 2 years - which isn't the worst thing since he's great with the young guys, is loyal to the franchise and doesn't have seem to have any issues with minutes/starting. Also likely to get injured and open up minutes for others.

Kleiza - While only 26 y/o he's also in the grey area with Calderon as far as team value vs. trade value. He is a tweener that has 3 years left on his deal which is OK but not great value considering he shouldn't be starting alongside our young guys in the new defense first philosophy (he's one of the guys on the roster who is simply not athletic enough to guard his position at SF) and that was before his serious injury requiring surgery. The most-likely amnesty choice out of the 3 considering he may lose a step this season.

PS:

The other choice I expect to come from others is Bargnani, but I can't see him on this list because even his biggest critics admit he has vast potential, and his current trade value is higher than any of these players - meaning amnesty-ing him (or simple salary dump trade), a player approaching their prime that is on a non-max contract with a PER of 16.5 last year, would be viewed as absurd. I view him like Monta Ellis - has weaknesses, but is also too valuable on the market to waive outright.

I think none of those three mentioned will be traded this season. Barbosa comes off the books after this season. Calderon provides a steady floor general even though he can't guard his shadow. Kleiza is recovering from a devastating injury and doesn't have a marketable contract for his abilities and current bill of health.

I feel this could be the deciding season for Bargnani. If he fizzles off from his good start at camp and proves to be all show and no go then I think we can safely say he'll be in Casey's dog house with a one way plane ticket out of Toronto. The draft might be the ideal time to trade him if he doesn't show improvements and desire on defense and in rebounding the ball.

Tbh, i dont really like the sound of Gray at all. He 'fits' the rebuild in the way that hes cheap and a lump of lard to 'brick' the center position but if he gets more than bench minutes hes not going to help at all. His downsides outweigh his ups (cue Bargs haters), i just dont see how he can contribute more than nothing.

Tbh, i dont really like the sound of Gray at all. He 'fits' the rebuild in the way that hes cheap and a lump of lard to 'brick' the center position but if he gets more than bench minutes hes not going to help at all. His downsides outweigh his ups (cue Bargs haters), i just dont see how he can contribute more than nothing.

Gray isn't part of the rebuild though. He's on a 1 year deal, and will most likely be gone when this team turns the corner and becomes a playoff threat.

Considering we literally haven't heard a work from Barbosa yet, I'm going to guess BC is shopping his Expiring contract pretty hard. And with Jamal Crawford now signed in Portland, teams will covet Barbosa's Sixth man potential.

Considering we literally haven't heard a work from Barbosa yet, I'm going to guess BC is shopping his Expiring contract pretty hard. And with Jamal Crawford now signed in Portland, teams will covet Barbosa's Sixth man potential.

It could be because of his knee tendinitis, which has kept him out of the last few workouts.

Considering we literally haven't heard a work from Barbosa yet, I'm going to guess BC is shopping his Expiring contract pretty hard. And with Jamal Crawford now signed in Portland, teams will covet Barbosa's Sixth man potential.

'covet'?

TRUE LOVE - Sometimes you know it the instant you see it across the bar.

Considering we literally haven't heard a work from Barbosa yet, I'm going to guess BC is shopping his Expiring contract pretty hard. And with Jamal Crawford now signed in Portland, teams will covet Barbosa's Sixth man potential.

Yeh, notably Sacramento missed out as a finalist for Crawford's services ... and the Knicks and Pacers also had offers to him.

Not sure what a package from any of these squads would be for LB, but worth looking into.
I'm sure we could get Salmons or Garcia from Sacto if we wanted them ... probably don't.
Knicks don't have any sizeable contracts outside of their big 3.
Pacers could have a package of interest built around Brandon Rush, but I personally would rather keep LB for his contributions this year.

The only way to bag a classy lady is to give her two tickets to the gun show... and see if she likes the goods.

I think Barbosa will definitely get dealt, the question is when. In this shortened season there are bound to be injuries on teams that are contenders or looking to make a deep playoff push: all BC has to do is sit back and wait for the desperation to kick in, then swoop in with an offer. My hope is that he can squeeze a late first round pick out of someone.

So do we still need draft picks? We'll already have 2 first-round rookies coming in next year. Do we really need 3? I'm not sure what to do, but I don't think trading Barbosa for trade picks is a good idea. But then again, I don't get paid millions of dollars a year to think about it full-time.

I'd like to see Jose play out his career here and resign a backup deal after his current contract expires but I will admit that idea has a lot of emotion tied to it rather than logic. I like a PG that disributes like Jose and would love to have him mentor a guy like Kabongo or Kendall Marshall.

A recent SUN article makes it sound like Bayless is going to be tried out as Barbosa 2.0, making the original (older) Barbosa tradable at the deadline. IMO the most likely of any Raptor to be traded this season. Of course if his body doesn't hold up that's all moot.

Kleiza is a mystery. Last season he was coming off a brilliant international tournament and all of a sudden couldn't do shit on the court. The big reveal: injured, requires surgery. I'd like to see him healthy and see if he can provide value off the bench. At only 26 he is certainly of an age to fit into the rebuild

If the market rises for Barbosa this season and Colangelo is able to get a first rounder or another young, inexpensive asset back in return then I'd expect him to be moved. Worst case scenario is he plays the year in Toronto and we get the cap room this summer when his deal comes off the books. No matter what scenario plays out, the Raptors stand to benefit to some degree.

Calderon has more value on the Raptors then he would on the trade market. His contract is bloated to the point that if you trade him, you're just going to end up with some other team's damaged goods in return. He's still an effective player in Toronto despite being overpaid, and trading him means that the Raptors will be turning over 48 minutes of point guard time a night to the combo of Bayless and Anthony Carter. That would bring new meaning to the term "bottoming out".

I could see him being moved next year as an expiring deal or possibly amnestied in the summer if the Raptors need the cap room to land a big free agent or two. I don't think he's going anywhere this year however.

Kleiza's contract and bionic knees make him impossible to move for the time being. The Raptors don't really stand to gain anything by buying him out or amnestying him as they have no use for the cap room right now anyway. Their best bet is to sit on him and see if he can get healthy enough to restore his value.

The Raptors have a number of young role players with potential for development on the roster right now. What the rebuild process needs is one or two star players to complete the process (yeah, no kidding). The way free agency goes these days, the Raptors obviously need things to fall into place through the draft like it did for OKC. You know, very lucky.

Kleiza's contract and bionic knees make him impossible to move for the time being. The Raptors don't really stand to gain anything by buying him out or amnestying him as they have no use for the cap room right now anyway. Their best bet is to sit on him and see if he can get healthy enough to restore his value.

The only issue I could see with keeping Kleiza this year is the fact that we can only amnesty 1 player per offseason - meaning that if neither player pans out for us - next summer we would have to choose between him and Calderon.